Ben Vanderbergerk
(Ben Vanderbergerk) is a Shinigami of the Gotei 13. Appearance See picture. Personality Ben is a socially awkard man. He is also very loyal to his own morality code, he never breaks it and in doing so, he isolates himself away from everyone in self-pity. Ben is a gentle man, he isn't hard to get along with and he normally shows the greatest respect to people he can. Although he can be stubborn, since he lost his lung, he refuses any kind of treatment to get it back due to him not wanting to be a nuisance. History Ben was born into a noble family. The family had a war with another noble family and Ben's family lost due to a lack of support. Ben fought and killed many of the opposite of the noble family, against his wishes. Ben's original parents disliked Ben, he was the middle child and often ignored, after many attempts to gain his families attention, he eventually gave up and retreated into doing his own thing, such as reading, writing, physical training and practicing music. His parents made him go to the Shinō academy against his will, mainly to get him away from them as he was shaming the family. The parents had hoped to that the first mission would kill him. However, Ben was a great student in the school, not the best, but a fairly good one. His first mission was easy enough, kill a camp of hollows, the group succeeded well, and no one died. Some were injured but the wounds were minor, nothing a few days in Squad 4 couldn't fix. His family was upset to hear that he did so well, they began to bribe certain members in the school to send him on more dangerous missions. Ben was at the time, still nervous around others, he didn't have a lot of recognition around the school, which he enjoyed, it saved him the trouble of having to communicate with others. Eventually he was sent on a teamwork mission with some students in a higher class than him. There had been a rumour of a gillian classed arrancar to be wondering around the Rukon. The Arrancar was brainless, it offered not much of a challenge in terms of outsmarting it, but it was still very dangerous. When fighting the Arrancar, the group lost, some even died. Ben was cornered back to a wall, his shoulder dislocated . That was when he heard his zanpakutou spirits talk to him for the first time. The arrancar was ready to fire it's cero at him, Ben weakly lifted his sword up in a pathetic attempt to do something about the attack. The two souls spoke in unision as the cero collided with the sword, the cero was absorbed and sent back too the hollow, piercing the brain in a quick, lightning attack. Ben was too weary to see what had happened, he had a concussion and passed out seconds after. When he woke up, he was surprised. Did someone come and save them? He didn't know. He spent a few days in squad 4 reading, trying to think. He was in an isolated room by himself, no nurses came to visit him. His parents paid to make sure of that. The only communication Ben had was with his swords, they spoke to him in light whispers. Ben spent hours on end listening to them, only talking to them when he slept, even then he was silent. They were his only friends in his life, the only people that partially cared about him, not ever the teachers cared by sending him on a mission that he clearly wasn't ready for. After Ben had gotten out of the hospital, he had graduated from the Shinō academy for killing the arrancar by himself, instead of choosing a squad, he went back to his family to train with his sword and master his shikai before he tried to join a squad, plus he wasn't comfortable joining a squad, that required meeting the captain and other people. Ben did not have the courage to do that. With each passing day, Ben's family began to spite him moreso, his siblings did not dislike him or pay any notice. When growing up, the eldest sibling would always read to him, starting his fascination with books. Ben's noble house grew into a conflict with another noble house, and eventually a war broke out between the two. Guards and members of the house all fought. Ben's parents saw this as a great opportunity to have him killed. His brother and him went out into battle to fight one time. His brother didn't come back, he had been killed by the eldest of the other noble house. When bodies were collected and prepared funerals of each dead soldier. His mother became an alcoholic, she would often ramble on in front of Ben about how it should been him. After she'd finished her nervous breakdown, she'd' throw her glass at him, if it actually managed to hit him, he'd be made to make her another one, and that would continue everynight for the rest of the damned conflict. The eldest of the opposing noble family was a kind man who didn't like fighting in the slightest, he was very charitable and the public figure of the family house. Ben knew this, and respected the man for being the man his parents wanted him to be. They had battled before and he already knew his strategy, Ben spent countless nights practicing and thinking about how to counter it. He knew how to exactly. Kido. He opened the battle straight up with a Sokatsui, already injuring him. What Ben didn't count on, was his zanpakutou, it was kido based he knew that much, it's blasts of energy were very powerful, blowing holes in walls at such large length and width. Ben didn't want to kill him, and he knew his opponent didn't enjoy the idea of killing him either, but he had too regardless. Ben reached that conclusion as well half way through the fight. He released his own zan and absorbed his attacks. He didn't do anything with those, they just kept storing and storing, this aggravated his opponent. Eventually, Ben shunpo'd behind him, startling his opponent and aimed his next strike into his back, the second the swords came into contact, they began to shock him, causing his system to shut down. As soon as the blades left him, so did his opponents life. The noble houses white knight had been felled, and Ben's house family surely would win. Ben's family started to praise him more, pay more attention to him. However Ben's ego would cause him to ignore them, treating them like they treated him as a child. Late at night one night, Ben's mother came to talk to him in one of her drunken trances. She went on about how she always loved him best and that her brother was the mistake. This wounded Ben's pride, they had neglected him his whole life and now they wanted to associate themselves with him. Ben had enough, he let out years of pent up anger. He killed his mother by strangling her. Ben realised what he had done and grieved, not for his mother, but for the monsterous action he commited. Ben fled, he arranged a Senkaimon to hide in The World of The Living in self isolation, his family had a gigai made for each of them for family holidays, although they never bothered to take Ben, so it was just always there gathering dust. He lived there for years and countless other generations, he worked under another rich family, lived as a baker for awhile, whatever could get him by in life. For the last 50 years he lived as a musician for a few years, playing at small bars and festivals. After realising that wouldn't work he (~~caught up with his old chemistry teacher to make meth~~) started programming. He hated everything about the place, bad work hours, people were usually coffee drinking jerks, harrassing whatever female intern they had. Ben's greatest moment of his day was going home. His apartment was small, the main rooms light didn't work, all he had was a bad television. He couldn't get it fixed as he had to keep saving up money to forge new ID's every now and then as he didn't have anyway to get another gigai. Eventually his work went bankrupt and took all his money, not owning any belonging to sell, Ben faked his own death with his gigai by leaving it after jumping off a building. Ben had assumed that everyone had forgotten about him, it had been 900 or so years. Ben returned at the death of the old squad 13 captain. He was put into that squad as a fifth seat by the then captain Hinata Matsuo. Ben didn't mind, he never really had to talk to anyone there, although over time, he grew to like the squad, began to see them as a family. A few months later, the captain of squad 13 passed away somehow. No one knew how or why. Ben was mad, he had bonded with the captain, she was his only real friend. He even officiate her wedding. The squad was also guilt stricken, Squad 2's Kazuma and Squad 13's Yoshito put Ben up to a date with the lieutenant at the time Rukia Kuchiki. A month later, Ben transferred over to Squad 9 as the lieutenant, although a few months later, the Captain Yoshiko Tanaka demoted him because she preffered someone else rather than him. After this, Ben went on a mission to kill a criminal who was spreading a plague around the streets of the Rukongai. While Ben managed to succeed in his mission, the criminal managed to bind Ben's soul into a haunted piece of armour. Recently he get out of his armour through a ritual performed by the fullbringer Cameron. However due to this process, Ben lost a lung and now is severely limited. Powers and Abilities I can cast kido up to Hado and bakudo #64 Shunpo Best cuddles Zanpakutou *Umi no kyōfu 海の恐怖 (Horrors of the Ocean) The Zanpakutou is Twin Souled, one sword is a standard katana, the other is a nodachi. In release the swords change into a greatsword and a rapier. (Ability 1) Describe your second ability. On contact with a reiatsu based attack, it will bisect. This is only possible if the attack touches one of the swords. (Ability 2 name) The sword absorbs an ability, it can absorb an ability up to 5 times, but after that, it will release a powerful energy blast. With each stack, the blast gets stronger. At 5 stacks, it will immediately send back the attack. (Ability 3 name) At 4 stacks or lower, the instead of firing the electric arc at an enemy, the two swords become engulfed in electricity, causing whatever it touches the next time it touches anything to explode in an AoE electrical burst. Statistics Trivia Ben's theme song is "Things Beyond Things" by Devin Townsend Ben has a pet Kitsune named "Kyokun" Quotes Optional. Category:Shinigami Category:Seireitei Category:Kobayashi Clan